Better Than Fireworks
by Lillyhappy
Summary: A proposal one shot :3 Simple as that


I have no desire, what so ever, to move at the moment. Creativity is pretty much dead and I feel terrible. Not only is my head stuffed up, but it hurts, like throbbing hurts, from getting whacked upside the head earlier and from the cold that I feel was pretty much inevitable. Why today? For heaven's sake, why did I have to get a cold and feel completely _miserable_ New Years day? It seemed a tad unfair considering the butt kicking I did at four in the morning. I couldn't sleep after the festivities and just to get back at me for thinking that the ghost truce would last throughout the break, who else, but Johnny and Kitten decide to invade the night and cause multiple people to scream over the course of two hours. Since it was New Years I wrote it off as people going a little too crazy with parties and fireworks, until the screams grew dangerously to Sam's apartment, which isn't too far from mine and Tucker's. They were asleep while I was playing with my grandmother's engagement ring, when my ghost sense went off. It was an easy fight, but Johnny caught me off guard once and the back of my head met with brick in a very uncomfortable manner. I caught them both off guard after that by forcing my recovery and sucking them into my thermos and screaming at them to stop playing poultrygeist at four in the morning. Not that it'll do much good, but it made _me_ feel a bit better at least. I woke up once at one in the afternoon only to drift back into sleep. Now I know that was a bad idea. The next thing you know I wake up groaning at four. My whole New Years day was wasted by sleep. Now here I am curled up in a ball with about six blankets around me, some hot chocolate and a football game on in front of me. I'd much rather watch the Twilight Zone, but I was too cold and too tired to move to the remote which this idiot tossed on the other side of the room.

Sam and Tucker must have woken up earlier and went to spend the day with their families, which is what _I'm_ supposed to be doing, except for the fact that Jazz is half way across the planet and couldn't make it, and Mom and Dad were overly busy with government crap that I, personally, wouldn't touch for a million bucks. With this miserable cold, I'd just add to the stress, knowing Mom. She always threw everything away to take care of me, and it usually bit her back pretty hard, so I'm not letting that happen. I gave her, Jazz and Dad a call telling them Happy New Year and such, but didn't mention the cold. They didn't ask why I wasn't over which immediately told me they already knew I was sick. That's one thing about moms that I will _never_ get. I reluctantly looked at the score board on the TV and winced; the Badgers weren't scoring too often. Not that I love the game, but the Wisconsin Badgers were my favorite team to watch, despite the fact that they were in the same state as Green Bay, which I don't like for obvious reasons. I root for the Broncos just to piss Vlad off, that, and the fact that John Elway was an awesome quarter back from what I saw when I was a kid watching the game with Dad, who usually fell asleep when it got dark. My heart sank a bit, I missed that.

I got up out of my warm blankets and walked to my room. It was messy, which shouldn't be at all surprising, but not nearly as bad as it was when I still lived with Mom and Dad. It was about the same size as my old room though, so nothing really changed from building to building, besides where my window was, which was beside my dresser. My bed wasn't made, which would usually bug me, but not today, I flopped on it and reached over to pull out the drawer in my nightstand. It was in a weird place, and no one would ever find it there. I picked up the little fuzzy blue box and opened it carefully. There it was, it wasn't too gaudy, which is just Sam's style, it had one bright little diamond with one amethyst on each side, and they glittered like nothing I've ever seen all attached to a silver band that was just the right size for Sam's ring finger. I couldn't even believe it when she and I were just goofing off at the mall and she just blurted out her ring size when she was ogling over jewelry. Same size as my grandmother's. Even if it wasn't her size, I'd resize it… If she said yes that is. I sighed, overly terrified of that two lettered answer gnawing at the back of my mind. I grabbed a chain, threaded the ring to it, and strung it around my neck. I fiddled with the ring a bit before getting up and going back to the living room. I snatched my mug and wandered into the kitchen to rinse it out and put in some hot tea. I overheard from the TV that the Badgers lost. I took a quick glance at the score: 19 to 21. Ouch. TSU _was_ undefeated this year, and at least the Badgers got to play at the Rose Bowl. That's something. I poured hot water into my mug and dipped in the tea bag. I walked back into the TV room and snatched the remote before tossing it by my spot of a thousand blankets. I was shaking again.

I snuggled back into my fortress of fabric and put my tea on the coffee table in front of me. I lazily reached for the remote, but had no desire to watch TV anymore. The TV clicked off and I buried myself under about three blankets, and the worst part was that I was still cold. I coughed a few times so I checked my tea and stole a sip before I buried myself again. I didn't exactly want to fall asleep, but despite my efforts I did doze off.

It must have been a few minutes when I woke up again to the sounds of keys and tumblers from the front door to my apartment. It must be Tucker. I concluded, not moving. There were two sets of footsteps. Valerie? It wasn't abnormal for Valerie to visit Tuck, and I was perfectly okay with that, I kinda had to be since she was his girlfriend. She still is a bit wary of me though, I apologized a billion times, but I'm not sure I'll ever receive forgiveness from her. Crud, there's three people here? Who else did Tuck decide to bring? I heard silent voices heading towards Tuck's and mine rooms. They must know I'm under here, otherwise why be so silent? I resisted the urge to groan and shifted into a better position burying my face into the couch.

"DANNY!" A sudden scream sent me flying off the couch, landing hard on my back and smacking my arm against the coffee table, barely having time to catch my tea and compose myself.

"What? What is it?" I yelped scrambling to my feet and running towards the scream. I stopped myself by the door frame and looked into my room where Sam was standing, looking beautiful, but terrified. She ran up and tackled my with a hug that sent us both to the floor.

"Ouch." I breathed, "You okay?" She got up and grabbed my arm.

"Am _I _okay?" She screamed; I flinched at the tone and at the pain that seared across the back of my head. "What about you? What about this?" She pointed to my bed, then at her hand which had bits of dried blood on it. I stared then shot up and looked at my pillow then touched the back of my neck.

"Yeesh!" I coughed "when did that happen?" It stung like crazy.

"Good grief, Danny." She grabbed my shoulders and forced me on my bed and sat behind me. I turned my head a bit wondering what she was doing but she steadied my head foreword before I could ask. She brushed my hair a little bit to see my neck; I flinched and looked down in an attempt to help. There it was: a pretty little ring in plain sight! I tried not to panic and stuffed the chain into my shirt as calmly as I could. Did she see it?

"You are about as dense as mercury Danny." She had her first aid kit with her, how is that even surprising? She totes that thing everywhere people actually think it's her purse. "You had no idea there was a little piece of_" I yelped as something was pretty much torn from the back of my neck "glass here?" She finished quickly pressing something wet and soft against my obvious cut. That didn't help. It stung like nothing else and I felt something bubbly.

"Carbon dioxide, really? What _don't_ you have in that thing?" I winced as she dabbed at my neck and covered it up.

"I'm going to have to wrap around your neck Danny. This cut is pretty big." I gave her a thumbs-up as she held the gauze in place with one hand and walked around to sit in front of me. She smiled, moved the chain, that I prayed she wouldn't ask about, and wrapped a cloth around my neck, thankfully only once. I hate having too much stuff around my neck, it never felt right and she knew it.

"Danny? Sam? We all clear?" I heard Tucker outside my door. Sam put her cold hand on my bandage and smiled at me as I sighed.

"All clear Tucker." She said, but she wasn't done with me yet. "But it'll get crowded in here." She stood up and I did the same ruffling my hair into a manageable place. We walked out to see Tuck and Valerie standing by the front door.

"What? You two leaving?" I asked, they both stared. "What?"

"What happened to you Danny? You look horrible." I raised an irritated eye brow.

"Thanks Val." She put her hands up

"Danny, you're pale, you have bruises all up your arms, and who knows what else?" She eyed my stomach for some reason. Oh wow, I forgot she was fighting Kitten and Johnny with me. She was hit the same time I was when I bonked my head. I forgot what happened after I snapped at the two morons that I stuffed into the thermos.

"I'm fine; the pale part is from a cold." I explained, trying my best not to yawn. Sam raised an eyebrow.

"Again- Mercury." She shook her head and touched my stomach which did not feel all that great. She glared at me and lifted my shirt.

"Hey!" I flailed my arms a bit, but she had gripped my shirt so I couldn't back away. Darn it! She's the only one that can do that. She touched a nice bluish bruise on my left side. It didn't hurt as bad as my neck but it didn't like being touched all the much either.

"Good, you didn't break anything." She sighed and allowed me to put my shirt down, which I did in a huff.

"Yippee." I groaned returning to my spot on the couch. "You can go now Tuck, I think I'm pretty much taken care of on being chewed out." Tuck smiled with his arm around Val's shoulder she smiled with a raised eyebrow.

"Thanks bud." They began walking out

"Despite the bruises, it was good seeing you again Danny." Val turned around

"Oh yeah, since it was _so long ago_ when we last saw each other." I shot back playfully she shot me a look right back.

"Don't get me started, ghost." she smiled and they left. The door clicked and Sam flopped on the couch next to me. I flinched a bit, but it didn't hurt too badly.

"Sorry." she leaned against me and I shook my head a bit

"It didn't hurt all that bad." She smiled and played with my shirt, cruuud. She's going to find it! Her hand ran across the ring softly.

"What's this?" She asked quietly

"N-nothing, just my c-class ring." I stuttered, failing at acting normal, she had her head against my chest; there was absolutely no way she couldn't tell that my heart was racing.

"You have two of them?" She asked. Crap. It's been three years since I gave her that emerald class ring, and she still had it around her ring finger. My mind raced a bit, and suddenly I didn't feel very sick.

"Well, it's more of a replacement." I blurted, regretting it immediately. She sat up and scanned my eyes for what seemed like an eternity.

"Replacement?" I sighed.

"You know how I was going to give you something yesterday, but we got a little sidetracked?" She thought a bit.

"Oh yea, we stopped to watch the fireworks on the rooftop. _That_ was pretty cool." I sighed heavily.

"I was hoping for romantic." Sam looked at me and I mentally kicked myself for blurting out again.

"Romantic?" She smiled sweetly, and I melted

"Yeah, they would have looked beautiful with all those fireworks around." What is this? Do I have absolutely _no_ control over my mouth right now? Her eyes glowed and I thought I saw her heart jump.

"They?" She eyed the little ring shaped bump under my shirt. I blushed and stopped myself from rubbing the back of my neck. I had it planned perfectly, she would be on the roof with me watching the fireworks, then I'd just slip the ring in front of her, and it would sparkle as much as the fireworks did. I sighed, this was far from romantic. An old little apartment with goofy little decorations, little Christmas lights everywhere, us bundled up, me beaten up and sick and she went to a lot of trouble to heal me. I stared at the Christmas tree next to us sadly. She played with my shirt, then with my hair like she did whenever she wanted a kiss. I was too ashamed to give her one. She traced my chin and pulled my face to hers. Our eyes met. Then the lights went out.

"That's weird. The Christmas lights are still on." I got up to check on them, but Sam pulled me back down. She glowed, absolutely gorgeous. I settled back down staring at her. She blushed

"What are you staring at?" I had no idea, a doll, angel, maybe goddess? Something with _something _beyond description, that made me melt whenever we made eye contact. She left me in a trance. I subconsciously reached for the ring.

"Danny?" My heart was _humming_ it was beating so fast. I pulled the chain off and kept the ring hidden in my hand. I didn't say a word, I _couldn't_ say a word if I tried. I just simply grabbed her left hand, removed the class ring and showed her the replacement I had in mind. Her eyes were as big as dinner plates. She looked at me snatched the ring and tackled me again, sending me backwards. I caught us both before we fell to the floor. She giggled and held me pretty tightly, I returned the gesture only moved her over so we wouldn't fall. She lay next to me beaming as she slid the ring onto her left hand's ring finger. I brushed her hair past her ear and smiled. She grabbed my shirt and pulled me into a kiss. and I kissed her back, before both of us started laughing. She looked at the ring after we pulled away and moved it around with her thumb. It glittered with the Christmas lights.

"I think this is better than fireworks." She whispered


End file.
